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Guyspeak

The informant is a college student from Wilmington, North Carolina. He has studied Spanish and Portuguese and has spent a considerable amount of time in both Spain and Brazil. This piece of lore started in Brazil.

“Guyspeak” is a group of slang terms used by the informant and his group of friends. It is based off of the broken English of Brazilian a man with whom the informant spent time while in Rio de Janeiro. This man called everyone “guy” and would consistently confuse “is”, “are”, and “am”. The informant, as well as those with him, liked how this sounded and adopted it themselves, even though they knew English perfectly well. Some examples the informant gave of Guyspeak are as follows:

“Hey guy. You are come to market?”

“I are not happy.”

Upon returning to the United States from Brazil, the informant and his continued to use Guyspeak. This eventually caught on with friends who never went to Brazil or met the man on whom it was based. Now, it has spread to many people who don’t even know where it started. This way of speaking has caught on mostly for its humor. Although it could be taken as offensive or making fun of foreigners, the informant insists that he is friends with the person and know